One of the options is what goes underfoot in a fold-up inflatable and then there's nearly everything else. The floor rides the boat, determines its weight, rigging time and a true slice of the price! There are three standard responses and they react in very different ways.
Floors: the old-fashioned hard floor
The classic inflatable floor has remained the standard—the Floorboards! The panels of marine-grade plywood or aluminium fit together and are tensioned by the cross and side profiles which also act as reinforcement so that the entire floor is one solid unit. When combined with a keel, the hull makes the V shape, and this is what makes these boats the best ride and handling of the three. The price is weight and time, as the set is heavy, and must be constructed up from scratch each time you rig the boat.
Slatted deck: light and simple
A slatted deck is the easiest type of deck to build, simply install wooden slats on the bottom of the tube. Very light and easy to care for and tolerant of rough handling. What it must sacrifice is performance: the bottom remains flat, the boat won't run and turn like a V-hull, and comfort is not great in any chop. It is a small somewhat practical tender, you want to drive it hard, less so.
Inflate and go on the air deck
The other new addition is the air deck – otherwise known as the inflatable floor – which is new and fashionable, and is about 10 years old. It's based on drop-stitch fabric, also known as double-wall: two sheets of reinforced PVC (or Hypalon) coated cloth separated by 40 to 50 mm and maintained apart by two to five threads per square centimetre. Seal edges, blow into it and out of this floppy sandwich comes a strong, stiff panel. To get there, they run at an increased pressure of 4-5 times that of the tube, so an air deck has to have its own high pressure pump.
It's attractive to two things:
- Weight. On a 3.5 m (about 12 ft) boat, the air deck weighs about 7 kg (15 lb) while a set of floorboards weighs about 24 kg (53 lb).
- No assembly. There's no assembly required. Inflate up the floor and away goes the boat.
Those are the actual benefits and those are the list of benefits, too. The other side is not as bright:
- It is delicate. Air decks are susceptible to hard use and abrasion, which reduces the working life of the deck, and the boat does not have that solid feel when walking on the deck as compared to a floorboard equipped boat.
- It costs more. The air-deck version costs around 20-30% more than the boat with the floorboard.
The three floors, facing each other
| Feature | Floorboards | Air deck | Slatted deck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Longest | Short | Minimal |
| Weight | Heaviest | Light | Lightest |
| Hull shape | V-shaped | V-shaped | Flat |
| Ride & handling | Best | Medium | Lowest |
| Firmness underfoot | Solid | Less solid | Basic |
| Care needed | Low | Higher | Minimal |
| Lifetime | Longest | Shortest | Long |
| Price | Lower | Highest | Lowest |
Which should you choose?
Air deck: use if you're looking for something extremely light and don't want an assembly. It in turn demands gentle and careful use.
Slatted deck: a harder of the air deck, but just as light, portable and durable. Avoid out-and-back when you aren't looking for outright speed.
Floorboards: for just about any other application, the best general solution, and one that should be used as a default unless weight or setup time becomes a decision-making factor.
One footnote: this is a decision about the foldable-boat. If the hull is the floor, the question doesn't arise on a rigid inflatable (RIB). For those who are looking for a RIB, the guides to aluminum vs fiberglass hull and Hypalon vs PVC tube fabric address the options there.